MPM--September Sliding Away

Well, that month went fast. I think our routine is pretty good at this point, and now it's a race against the clock to finish all those projects I wanted to do "before I went back to work." I got the banking settled (woot! streamlining paperwork and cash flows FTW!), cleared the outgrown kids' clothes out of the attic, rejiggered the linen closet, and feverishly crammed through papers dating back to 2004. (Yep, just about the time I started staying home. Coincidence? I think not.)

This week: clear the boys' rooms...oh, wait. Nevermind. You were here for a meal plan. Right.

Monday: leftovers from Sunday spaghetti dinner with the family, veggies from CSA share

Tuesday: taco Tuesday!

Wednesday: chicken in mustard-cream sauce (see sidebar), or ginger-hoisin sauce (see below), or asparagus ketchup (trying again), salad, baked potatoes, CSA veggies

Thursday: leftovers, I hope, with veggies from the CSA

Friday: Football Friday. I'm so on it.

One other bloggy note before I go on to last week's reviews. Did you know it's less than 100 days to Christmas? Alas, there's the sad truth. So one more thing I did on my list: wrap the pre-bought gifts (also a review of What I Had since an October birthday is coming) and started with the 100 Days to Christmas blog. I do a (pathetically light) version of the Holiday Grand Plan, but can't keep up with it, but the 100 Days routine is much more my speed. With (usually) only one item a day, they do a great job keeping me on track for the holidays without feeling like I need to just leave my house and start over. It's also not just Christmas, they are sure to stop and enjoy the fall too. (Go apple picking, etc.) And: bonus this year: some great giveaways! They had an awesome Kindle giveaway last week. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next!

So, I got to the salmon with bok choy this week. My older son went crazy for the hoisin-honey-ginger sauce and had it on his chicken and rice. The salmon was yummy and easy. The bok choy was not a hit. I liked it but it wasn't great.

Based on the CSA, I made some kale chips on the fly. Oh, mercy--I forgot just how many of these my boys would chow down on. Why am I not making these every week??? The kale at the produce store is $1/bunch. Beats the heck out of chips, price- and nutrition-wise.

I'm also back in my miso-sweet potato groove, since we are receiving tubers of unusual size in the CSA this time of year. I love them and am enjoying them for lunch, um, yep, just about daily.

And the lunch box challenge is getting more challenging. The mercurial tastes of my son means that the exact same foods are chewed one day and eschewed another. And this is my "good" eater! But I did get 12/13 meals out the door last week. (I didn't know my husband was going to work early on Friday and there wasn't room in our very small fridge to have it made the night before.) So I'm working on it for next week and amping up the creativity factor.

So...here we have eight years of time at home coming to an end. That's not really fair; I've worked for pay for five of those eight years, but none with as much out-of-the-house time as this. It's amazing to me, I'm going back almost exactly eight years to the day after I left, almost the same amount of time my mother had, so I think in my psyche, I was just feeling like "it worked for her, it can work for me" and it made it easier. Of course, finding the right job helped a lot too. So stay tuned for a recap of my last "week of leisure" (ha ha, for that, I should have worked while they were little and taken off once they were in school!) and the blowing out of the water next week of all the routines I've grown to love. Have a great week and wish me luck in mine!

For really inspired meal plans, try I'm an Organizing Junkie! and see her most impressive list!